Too many grandparents have given too many copies of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or The Prince and the Pauper to too many grandchildren, who then went about for the rest of childhood under a cloud of undischarged obligation while those books sat on numberless shelves, unread.

James had accepted a position as 'partner Director' with Glasgow Culture & Sport despite section 52.1 of the body's Articles of Association stating that an "undischarged bankrupt" which James was at the time could not take such a position.

For the next century or so, there was the phenomenon of the undischarged bankrupt: the debtor who had given over all his assets to the creditors, made a full disclosure, and still did not get his discharge.